McNamee Attorney: GOP Congressmen Should Resign

Brian McNamee's attorney called on selected Republican congressmen to resign after the "outrageous attacks" directed at his client during Wednesday's hearing, a line of questioning that he believes was the result of baseball pitcher Roger Clemens' connections with the Bush family.

"It appeared to me, very clearly, that Republicans were carrying the water of some higher authority," said Richard Emery. "I expect it was the White House, but it could have been some other higher authority. They behaved incredibly in a partisan way. Democrats questioned both sides, but the Republicans only questioned McNamee."

As he did in the Mitchell Report, McNamee, a former Major League Baseball trainer, testified that he had injected his former employer Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone, claims that Clemens refuted under oath. Numerous Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform committee focused much of their questioning on McNamee.

Citing Clemens' remarks that former President George H.W. Bush had told him that McNamee's accusations were "unbelievable," Emery said the only way Clemens would have testified in the presence of federal agents, led by the IRS's Jeff Novitzky, was if the legendary pitcher expected a pardon from the current President Bush.

"It struck me that, when Roger Clemens said that he had gotten the support of George Bush, and there was a lot of connection between Clemens in Houston and the Bush family, that there was more going on here than meets the eye," Emery said.

"Then, it ultimately struck me that it was strange, to say the least, that his lawyers would put him to the buzzsaw of Jeff Novitzky's prosecutors, for lying to Congress, or lying to federal officials, without having some backstop measure, that he's either been assured, or angling for, a prospective pardon before [President] Bush gets out of office. That's the only logical way that he would have gone to the hearing and taken the position he did, and taken the risks that he did."

"We don't comment on pardons, but as far as I can tell, Roger Clemens hasn't been charged with anything," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

Clemens' lawyer Rusty Hardin said that "Richard Emery just has to quit smoking his own dope."

"They should forfeit their office, or at least their membership in that committee, because they have no right to behave that way," said Emery. "They were beyond biased. They were beyond unfair."

"This is really disgusting," Burton said to McNamee at the hearing. "You're here as a sworn witness. You're here to tell the truth. You're here under oath, and yet, we have lie after lie, after lie, after lie. You've told this committee and the people of this country that Roger Clemens did things, that I don't know what to believe. I know one thing I don't believe, and that is you!"

Issa called McNamee "a drug pusher."

"It was a witch hunt by the Republicans, and they had decided who the witch was, long before the hunt started," Emery said.

"Democrats shamefully turned a hearing, that was supposed to focus on the Mitchell Report, into a TV show trial about wrongdoing by one person — Roger Clemens," said Frederick Hill, a spokesman for Issa.

"Brian McNamee and his attorneys should stop denying the blunt truths about his wrongdoing and admitted lies. Rep. Issa will keep his seat on the committee, which he hopes will end the circus of the absurd, and start looking for waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government."

"Only Congress could take the Clemens-McNamee controversy and turn it into a partisan issue," said Earl Ward, a fellow McNamee attorney, at the conclusion of the hearing.